Category Archives: Blogging

Communication is vital for life. An obvious statement, I know. But when you think about it, communication, more importantly effective communication, is something we often take for granted. The majority of us learn to talk and communicate at an early age. We know how to say what we want, identify things we like, show disdain for things we don’t like. It seems so simple when you think about it but really, it’s so much more than that. It allows us to be who we are. It gives us an identity. It is how we want people to perceive us – by the thoughts and ideas we communicate with each other.

In college, when I went back for round two, I majored in English (big surprise there) with a concentration in Writing, Communication, and Rhetoric. I loved words, I loved writing. It made sense that I would gravitate toward that concentration. However, while there were some classes that really just were going through the motions (sorry – but Business Communications and Technical Writing were almost the same class – at least Tech Writing started off that way and it was probably because of the professor who taught it…), there were other classes that really examined language and how it’s used and how to effectively communicate with the masses.

In those classes, finding a voice was imperative. Without a voice, how could you communicate? My Advanced Writing class, which was really my one true Rhetoric class, was where we learned to write effective persuasive essays, straw man essays, and Aristotelian arguments using Logos and Pathos. It was by far one of my most favorite classes ever. Combine that with a professor who was one to say “I never give anyone an A,” and I was set to take that class and make it my life’s mission to get that ‘A’ he never gave.

That class was so interesting in the sense that in order to have an effective argument, it was important that you were very clear in what you were saying so there could be no misunderstanding. It taught me to get to the point and support the point clearly. It taught me to use one word rather than ten to get there. I could dig it up, but probably my most favorite argument was the one where I argued that Seinfeld was the greatest sitcom ever created. I don’t remember the exact reasons I gave, but I remember getting an A on that paper and in the end I got an A for the semester (which also gave me a sense of pride because it was awarded by a self-proclaimed “I never give As” professor).

Had I not learned how to effectively communicate and make sure that I was understood, I doubt my arguments would have been as strong as they were. I took a lot from that class because many of the lessons applied to every aspect of life. In order to have any relationship in life, you must effectively and clearly communicate and be understood. If you can clearly communicate, then you can be understood. Being able to be understood means that people are able to know me. They can understand my opinions and if they are able to communicate back, I can understand theirs.

Today, I have heard a lot of people say things like “Our country is pregnant with change,” or “We are living in a very historical time” and at the same time, we hear the candidates gearing up for Presidential campaigns. Everything is so politically charged and at times, it’s overwhelming. I can’t help but think that if people knew how to effectively communicate and have a discussion – not digging your heels in and shouting at each other trying to drown the other opinion out but a genuine conversation – we might better understand our friends and neighbors who hold a different opinion. We would understand what was being said. That’s the beauty of humanity. We have the ability to communicate and through that communication we are able to be understood. It really is an amazing thing to be understood.

This blog is part of my month long attempt (number fiftefoursixthteenth or something around that) at participating in NaBloPoMo. Check out other great bloggers who are working on hitting this 31 days of blogging goal and join in yourself if you want! The more the merrier! This month’s theme: Connect. Today’s Prompt: Do people generally understand what you’re trying to say?

It is surreal. For someone who doesn’t usually like to focus on herself or draw much attention to herself, I find myself in the strange position of putting myself out there and pushing something I created. Then again, I wrote the story so people would read it. I find myself following authors on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and blogs – looking for hints about how they market their books. It’s fascinating to me and sometimes feels a bit egotistical but I suppose we all have that little streak of ego that helps us move forward. It is probably a good thing. Listening to that ego only takes a second and sometimes it pays off.

Today is the last day of June. They say we get a whole extra second today. That extra second could make a world of difference to someone today and I find myself thinking about that second. So many possibilities in one second. I know in one second, the second I pushed that button to publish, I made a dream come true. It takes just one second and a person ready to take that second and make the most of it.

Cape Cod Canal and The Sagamore Bridge

It feels like summer today. So many seconds make up a summer day, roughly 86,400 seconds. Seconds of laughter. Seconds of hazy heat. Seconds of cookouts. Seconds of music playing into the night. Seconds of splashing in the ocean. Seconds that make life wonderful. Take those seconds and try to enjoy them.

As the Daughter and I were getting ready this morning, she was regaling me with stories of her first day at 4-H camp (which was a huge success thankfully and put this worried mother at ease), I took a second to just look at that little 6-year-old face. In that second, I saw her happy and innocent, enjoying life in its simplest form. Out in the woods, out in the lake, out with people having fun singing camp songs. No electronics. No real worries. Just sunshine and laughter. Seconds of life that hopefully she will some day remember and smile about.

I love when people ask why did you start your blog? I don’t always love when they ask me because I fear my answer will sound narcissistic but, I really do enjoy hearing other people’s answers. So Daily Prompt…

I suppose I should answer the question though, in case any of you were wondering. It’s truly a selfish reason. I blog so I can write.

On my 13th birthday, my Nana gave me a journal. It was called my Secret Garden Journal. It had a lock and it was set up by month and each day had its own page. Each month had beautiful illustrations of the flower of the month held within a beautiful yellow hardcover binding. The pages of the book were high gloss, though not my favorite for writing on, they were nice when used with a simple blue Papermate pen. However, when the pen was on the verge of dying, it would blot very badly and end up making my hand look like I had crushed a Smurf with my fist.

I had never kept a journal before. I didn’t quite know what to write in it. I knew I wanted to write more than just who I was currently infatuated with (which now looking back, I see that I had developed an early pattern of falling for the gay guys) and what I wore that day. But being only 13, there wasn’t anything really pressing to write about. I knew that it was a place to let my words out; empty my brain. The short little pages were not enough sometimes, but I wrote. Every night I wrote, lying in my bed, after all homework was done. I wrote about the day and I wrote about what I thought. It was liberating. Something about emptying those words on to those glossy pages and locking it up felt good.

I filled the book and then went out and bought another. This one, a more generic book with blank pages. It had a hard cover that had paperclips all over the front of it. I thought I would be like Anne Frank and name my diary. I loved that she had named hers. It was like she had a friend and confidant. It only made sense because my journal was like a dialogue and if I had a name, I didn’t feel like I was talking to myself as much as I was having a conversation that would help me work out all of the garbled thoughts a teenager can have. When my parents got divorced, that journal was my savior. I can’t even tell you how many pages were used during that time, but I can tell you that it was probably more effective than Dr. Mike making us play Don’t Wake Daddy, failing to see the irony in the selection of that specific game and the reason we were currently sitting in his office playing it.

Once that journal was filled, I continued on. I started stock piling journals so that if I filled one before the year was over, I had a new one at the ready. I kept a list of names, too. Each journal was different. Different cover, different paper weight, different lines, different color paper. Of course that meant each one deserved to have its own name. I also felt that it made each one a friend who saw me through something different. High school years, college freshman years, that weird period when I wasn’t in college…each journal was a lifeline.

Somewhere along the line, I stopped. I had journals but I had stopped writing religiously in them. I didn’t spend every night writing before turning out the light. I forgot about my friend who would wait up to hear about the day, every day.

All these years later, I realized that I needed to write every day. I needed that journal. I needed a space where I could keep bringing my thoughts out into a solid space and make them last in some way. I started blogging.

I don’t blog like I would write my journal. If I did, I fear you all would think I was a lunatic. Wait, you might already…

I really just blog to keep writing. If something specific gets stuck in my head, I try to write about that. If something particularly eventful occurs, I hope that I am able to capture it in a way that is true to myself and someday, if the internet is still around, my daughter might be able to read and realize that Mom wasn’t really as crazy as she seemed all the time.

After writing this post though, I think I might try to keep a more personal journal too. One where I can really, truly empty the brain. Who knows, there might be a story or two in there that might be worth exploring a little more…a dream that might need to be taken down off the shelf…

As I opened up my blog tonight to pen today’s post, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Kate at Cape Cod Scribe had nominated me for a Liebster Award!

The Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. So, what is a Liebster? The meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. Isn’t that sweet? Blogging is about building a community and it’s a great way to connect with other bloggers and help spread the word about newer bloggers/blogs.

I am really thrilled to be nominated because I always love finding new blogs and so not only will I hopefully have a few new dear readers, I will be able to find some new and exciting blogs to check out as well from my list of fellow nominees!

Like most blogger awards, there are some rules:

* Answer the 11 questions provided
* Create 11 questions for the next nominees to answer
* Link back to the one who nominated you
* Choose 11 people and link them in your post
* Go to their page and tell them
* No tag backs!

Seems simple enough. Let’s tackle the questions that were presented to me…

1. Beach, pool, or no way you get near water? Beach. Whether it’s a lake or the ocean, I love the beach. I could spend all day in the water.

2. We have a jumping bridge and the water is roughly a bone-chilling 60-degrees. Do you brave the water and jump with the teens or do you justify a reason for staying dry? Jump. Life is too short to not jump at least once with your kids. Plus, it will earn you some serious street cred with their friends. I have jumped off probably the very bridge in this question many times as a teenager…wonder if I’ll jump when the Daughter is a teenager?

3. Best thing you read recently: To Kill a Mockingbird. I never had to read it in school so I picked it up. Now, it is in the top 10 of all time list.

4. Character you wanted to see run over by a bus: TV Character? Right now, Geoffrey from Game of Thrones. The little shit has had it coming for a very long time. Book Character? Quentin Coldwater from The Magicians. He was SOOOOO whiny and annoying and apathetic and self-centered and aggravating…I can go on if you like but, I hope that you catch my drift.

5. Speaking of buses, did you ride one as a kid or bum a ride off of someone, parents included: I rode the bus from kindergarten to my sophomore year in high school when I got a ride from a junior I knew. Then my junior year, until I got my own license and car, I got a ride from Joe who also drove Adam and Christine…I will never forget that accident we got into on the way to school and when we were late they kept us because they thought we were just trying to skip first period…

6. First vehicle and why: A Pontiac Le Mans. It was, oddly enough, the same color as the font this is written in. Electric blue… It was my first car because it’s what my mother gave me. It was a $500 clunker, aka the perfect first car, and it was mine from 1997 to 1999 when I was hit by a woman who was having a stroke and it was totaled…poor Le Mans. So many memories come from that little blue egg car…

7. A TV show that your tried out and were shocked to ADORE: I don’t know if adore is quite the right word. Can you adore Norman Bates? I don’t think so. I really did enjoy Bates Motel. I was afraid it was going to take the quintessential Hitchcock film and ruin it but I have to admit, I am very pleased with how they have produced this show. The acting is good. The suspense is definitely there. This new view of Norman is intriguing. If you haven’t seen it, give it a shot…if you can handle that kind of television.

8. Do you Rock n Roll when you write? I used to Rock n Roll when I write but I found I would get distracted and practice for karaoke rather than write. That was when I gave house trance music a try. That is, for me, the perfect writing music. Pandora and Spotify both offer great streaming channels that help me get on a roll and I love them both for it.

9. What made you start a blog? My words needed to come out. I needed to write. I missed writing college papers. I had thoughts, stories, and just things I thought I should put into the internet for posterity sake. Well, everything but that last one really. I just needed a place to empty my head that wasn’t really a journal but allowed my writing muscle to get some exercise.

10. One place that you would drop everything to visit if the trip was 100% paid for: Australia or New Zealand. Both look beautiful in pictures. Both are ridiculously hard (read that Expensive) for me to get to at this point in my life. That’s not to say that I will never get there, it just will take some time. But if anyone wants to fund a trip for me to see the “Land Down Under,” I may consider any and all offers…

11. What you were doing one hour ago (this is a PG-13 blog! *cough cough*): Watching/listening to Roble and Company while I checked my Facebook, email, and updated the Daughter’s My Little Pony game on my iPad and iPhone. I like to multi-task.

Now for the 11 questions for the nominees:

1) If you could learn another language, what language would you want to learn and why?

2) Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny?

3) What is your favorite board game?

4) Did you write an online review (good or bad) of the last hotel you visited?

5) What was your favorite story book as a child?

6) What is your favorite fruit?

7) Do you consider yourself to have a green thumb?

8) What is one craft you have attempted but just couldn’t get the hang of?

It was hard for me to find blogs that I follow that had less than 200 followers so a few are over that number…but they are all pretty amazing blogs that are well worth checking out. Just be aware that some of them have a biting sense of sarcasm, one that I think in my head but often am too afraid to put out there on the internet.

So, dear readers, I hope you have enjoyed this little Q & A session and thank you again for the award! Congrats to all the newly named nominees!! I can’t wait to read your answers!!!

I am determined to complete 31 days of blogging this month. No matter what it takes. I have signed up for NaBloPoMo for a few months now and have yet to complete an entire month. So far, this month, I have done every day. I did not follow the prompts but that’s ok. I don’t have to. I just have to have a post for every day of the month.

Today, I’m not feeling inspired to write anything in particular. I mean, it’s not because there is a lack of news stories I can throw my two cents in on but I’m not a pundit so my opinion is probably just better kept to myself. I could talk about the Royal Baby Watch but, that feels wrong. I could talk about tv but right now, I don’t know what show to talk about. I could talk about books but we all know where that will end up…

That brings me to the [clichéd] thought, is less more? Can the post for the sake of a post hold any intrinsic value? Or, is it better to not even attempt a post every day and wait for the truly meaningful posts? In my quest to write these 31 posts, am I writing too much? I know that the initial answer is no, you can never write too much. NEVER. But on days like today, is this more just a way for me to continue to exercise my writing muscles? And the initial answer to that is yes.

I think that even though there is no real point to this post (or is there?), the mere fact that I’m taking fifteen minutes to write something, anything is a very good thing. Do I think that my overall blog will suffer? No. I think that everyone has days where they are just trying to come up with something and that’s ok. We don’t have to always be “on.” Today is one of those days.

I hope you were able to stay cool today and I hope tomorrow you have a way to stay cool, dear reader.

I tend to keep my personal struggles to myself. I don’t like to talk too much about my own issues, that is until I got the crazy idea to start blogging. Blogging is probably one of the more risky things I have done in the past few years. I mean it doesn’t hold a candle to some of the antics I pulled in my 20s but when you think about it, it’s still a pretty risky thing for anyone to do.

Of course there are different types of blogs written by hundreds of thousands of people. There are the “mommy” blogs that are full of parenting tips, recipes, fashion, and other things that interest stay-at-home-moms (hence the horrible moniker given to those blogs – do you think we’ll ever see a “daddy” blog? My guess is, there are some out there but they are probably not what we think they are…but I digress). There are photography blogs. There are travel blogs. There is pretty much a blog for everything.

When I first started blogging, it was hard for me to figure out the difference between a blog and a journal. I had so much to say and a blank screen in front of me waiting for my words to come spilling out through my fingertips. When I go back to those early posts, it’s sometimes painful to read. I’m all over the place. Wait, I still am all over the place. Oh well.

I wanted my blog to be about things I liked. I wanted it to be honest. I wanted to talk about things I knew about. I wanted to be me. That meant that I probably should use some of my blogging time to talk about my weight loss journey. That was scary. I mean people look at me and know that I have a problem but to talk about it? To people I have never met? That was something that scared the living daylights out of me (note, I use a slightly stronger word there in my head because it scared more than the daylights out of me). I felt though, that in order to really get back in control of it all and actually make real progress in my life, I had to write about it. I had to put it all out there.

While I know that I do not have hundreds of readers (yet), I know that there are those of you who do read and have commented on my various posts. It has meant a lot to me. It has helped me grow and helped me learn more about myself. While the risk was great and there were (and still are many) real fears feeding that risk, I have been able to take that risk and come out relatively unscathed. If anything, I have been able to actually express more through this blog, read by people I have never met, who somehow make me want to keep writing more and more.

This post is part of the March NaBloPoMo. This month’s theme is Risk. Today’s prompt was “What is the riskiest thing you’ve ever done? How did it turn out?” I think it’s turned out ok? What about you? What’s your riskiest thing?

I was recently nominated for a Sunshine Blog Award by Jerimi over at My Antidepresant Life. At first my reaction was that she probably only read the first few more recent posts and must not have read my whining, needy, I’m fat and trying to lose weight posts. Apparently though I was wrong. “The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity & creativity inspires others in the blogworld.” I guess I inspire at least one person and that is wicked awesome! So thank you Jerimi for the nomination and thank you even more for reading my little piece of the blogosphere!

I discovered that there are some rules that go with this award so here are the ones I was able to find on the internet as well as posted in the blog that nominated me:

In addition to these rules, according to the blogger who nominated me, I am to answer the questions that are postedin the nominating blog post. So, here we go:

Who is your favorite philosopher?

Winnie the Pooh or Calvin and Hobbes. Both have such wonderful insights on life and are actually based on real philosophers. I also have a special spot in my heart for the Monty Python’s Bruce sketch. That single song helped me keep my philosophers straight for the two years I had to take Providence College’s Development of Western Civilization course….

What is your favorite number?

8. It’s just nice.

What is your favorite animal?
Anyone who knows me knows that the answer is and will always be penguins. Even before the super awesome March of the Penguins, I have loved these flightless black and white (and one species of blue) birds.

Penguins!

What are your Facebook and Twitter?

Facebook is pretty private (I think and pray). I like to keep that just for people I really know. Twitter is just one of those things I know how to use but just don’t enjoy. I use it for things like FourSquare, GetGlue, and publicizing my blog. Anyone can find me there…

What is your favorite time of day?

I love the night. Late night. Like between 9pm and midnight. I am the most productive then. It’s quiet and in the summer, those night time hours have the best starlight.

Swimming. I feel so free when I’m swimming. I love the water and I love being in the water. I jump in, without testing the water temp, and just love to go! I could spend my entire time at the beach or pool in the water…forget the sunbathing…

What is your favorite non-alcoholic drink?

Dr Pepper. It’s so good. Who cares if you don’t really know what makes that particular combination of flavors, be it carbonated prune juice or fire retardant…it’s good.

What is your favorite flower?

Hmm…this one is always tough for me. I love a lot of flowers. I guess at the top of my list are Lilacs. They smell so good and really make me so incredibly happy. I also love Lily-of-the-Valley.

What is your passion?

My passion is writing. I really want to eventually figure out how to make a living writing. I’m getting there with small steps. I love it and life’s little instructions say “Do something you love and you’ll find a way to make money doing it.” I’m trying!

A long time ago, I decided I liked writing stories. It was a fun thing to create characters, pick what they looked like, what they did, what kind of lives they lived. It was even more fun to figure out how they talked and what kind of conversations they would have with the other people I invented in my head. It just was so much fun for me. I was happy when I wrote.

I wish I could say that I got tired of writing. I never have. Every school paper assigned to me was writing. I didn’t care what kind of writing I was doing, I just wanted to get words on a page. I loved turning my thoughts into sentences that had proper grammar, wonderful words, and hopefully some kind of point or meaning. While I wanted to do nothing other than write stories, the years that I had to spend the majority of my time writing papers, I took that for what it was – writing.

Now, I have time to write and so I choose to blog as one form of writing. Is it my passion? Yes and no. My passion is for the stories that pop into my head. The characters I see everywhere and the people who live in my mind’s eye are so intriguing. Do I wish I could spend all my time just writing about them? Of course I do, but I know that there is more to life than just locking myself in a room with an endless supply of Dr. Pepper, my computer, and a notebook with some blue Papermate pens.

I sometimes even find it tough to log on here and empty my brain but, I do it anyway. It’s important, you see, that I write every day. Whether it’s here using the daily prompt, in my journal planning out a character’s back story, or writing out a section of a story that’s been stewing in my brain, I need to write every day.

I once had a college professor say that writing is something you need to do even when you don’t want to do it, much like exercise. If you don’t do it, you won’t get the results you want. Lots of writers have said that (or something along those lines), to be honest. And please, don’t think that to be a writer you need to be someone who has published something. You don’t. You just need to write. If you write, you are a writer. If you get published, you are a published writer. Either way, you are a writer.

At the end of the day, I may not feel like blogging, but to be honest, I don’t always feel like exercising either. I do it though because I know that it’s important to keep my skills in shape, so to speak. I need to be able to play with words. I need to write long sentences. I need to write short, descriptive, action packed sentences. For me, there’s no question about energy to write, it’s just do. If I don’t, I might not get anything done because the words will stay rattling around in my head!

This blog was written as part of NaBloPoMo January 2013. The theme this month is “Energy.” Today’s prompt was “How do you find the energy to write when you’re not in the mood?” Check out the other great blogs participating this month by clicking here.

I am still somewhat new to blogging on a regular basis. That means that you, dear reader, must please be patient with me while I figure out the best formula for my little spot on the internet. It’s a little harder than I initially thought it would be, to be honest. There’s so much on the internet today. What will make someone read my little blog and enjoy it, rather than think it’s some narcissistic attempt to have a more modern version of a journal…even though it kind of is, isn’t it?

I find it so hard though to come up with a plan, a schedule of what kind of posts are going to be on what days. NaBloPoMo has been a godsend because I don’t have to do the thinking, though they do present me with one more conundrum.

There are so many different ways to plan a blog. You can pick a theme for the blog and only blog about that one thing. You can have different days devoted to different topics. You can have one whole month devoted to a single topic. You can photo blog. You can vlog or video blog. There’s just too many options on how to organize a blog.

Then we get back to my original source of anxiety. What to write about. I knew going into this blog, I wanted to talk about things I liked. Then I realized, I like a lot of things. Books, food, movies, writing, family…all of these are great topics to write about. So, the question then is, what is the right combination to keep people reading my little bitty blog.

It’s exhausting at times to think about this task of keeping this blog relevant and fresh. What possessed me to take this on other than my need to get these thoughts and ideas out of my head? Oh that’s right, I wanted to be a writer!

What do you find to be the thing about blogging (or any craft/hobby)you do that takes up the most of your energy?

This post was written as day 11 of NaBloPoMo January 2013. The theme this month is Energy and today’s prompt was “What blogging task takes up a lot of your energy?” Check out all the great blogs that are participating!

I just wanted to share some of these cool stats with you, dear readers!

Thank you for making my first year of serious personal blogging such a great success! I can’t wait to see what 2013 will bring!

On the Total Number of Hits This Year:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,300 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.

On Total Number of Countries That Visited My Site:

42 countries in all!
Most visitors came from The United States. Canada & The United Kingdom were not far behind. Other countries included Australia, Russia, Most of Europe, New Zealand, and Mexico! Thanks for Reading!! I hope you keep reading into the next year!